A deep-dive guide into cyber risk quantification

CISOs, CIOs and IT security professionals are grappling with more cyber threats now than ever. From malware and ransomware, to DDoS attacks and zero-day exploits, the risks just keep increasing. So how do you know which risks to tackle first? Or where to focus your cybersecurity investments?

The traditional approach would be to rank all your risks as high, medium, and low. But these categorizations can be interpreted differently by different people. You might think a medium risk needs to be mitigated, but the management team might argue that it can be accepted. Defending your point of view can be tough because the term ‘medium risk’ sounds quite ambiguous.

It gets more challenging when you have 2-3 different risks that are all ranked medium. Which one do you focus on first? Do you spend the same amount of time and resources managing all three risks? It’s difficult to know for sure.

But what if you were told that a malware attack on your organization could cost you $3 million in losses? And that there’s a 60% chance of that loss occurring? Now, things become clearer, both for your IT security team and the business. You can quickly come up with a response, get consensus, and take action to protect your business.

What you’ve done is inject more accuracy and clarity into your cyber risk assessments. Ambiguous terms have been converted into hard numbers. And that can make all the difference.